My triplets -- Nora, Connor and Cameron -- love books, and since I literally own every Dr. Seuss book there is, a Seussian theme for their 1st birthday party was the perfect blend of fun and thrift. I'm a writer, editor and amateur graphic designer, so I created most of the decorations myself very inexpensively.

We hung simple swags of twisted streamers in each doorway in the party colors of red, blue and yellow, and we used colorful Dr. Seuss books as accents on the food and drink tables, and around the house. There were even books in the bathroom, where guests could play around with a DIY Lorax mustache I attached to a dowel rod and set next to the mirror.

The menu was completely Seuss-inspired, and my mother and I made just about everything: Green Eggs (green-tinted deviled eggs) and Ham with Roast Beast (deli roll-ups with assorted breads); Kartoum Chicken (chicken salad); Poodle Noodles (spiral pasta salad); Dogs to Go (pigs in a blanket); ABC Soup (alphabet vegetable soup); Fish in a Pot (goldfish crackers served in a teapot); Hop on Popcorn (buttered popcorn); Truffula Fruit (fresh fruit skewers); Yertle's Turtles (pretzel turtle candy); and Star-Bellied Sneetches (store-bought frosted sugar cookies with cut-out fondant stars that I stuck on with a little icing). The bar offered a selection of Pink Ink Drink (pink lemonade punch), Moose Juice (alcoholic electric-blue lemonade for the adults), and McElligot's Pool Water (bottled spring water with DIY labels I designed and sealed to each bottle with packing tape). I also designed fun DIY signs for each food/drink item that put the name of the dish in context with an appropriate quote from the Dr. Seuss book that inspired it.

Before I had children, I was a regular baker, so I baked and decorated a two-tier yellow cake for the guests iced with vanilla buttercream and covered in fondant. (I made the Seussical candles on the cake myself by twisting regular birthday candles into striped fondant decoys I anchored to the cake at odd angles with bamboo skewers.) I also made jumbo cupcakes for the babies to smash, with DIY cupcake sleeves labeled "Thing 1," Thing 2" and "Thing 3" and piped blue buttercream standing in for each Thing's hair.

Watching triplets tear into enormous cupcakes piled high with icing was the real entertainment, but I also had classic Dr. Seuss movies playing in rotation on the television ("The Lorax," "The Sneetches," "The Cat in the Hat," etc.) and had a coloring table with crayons and Dr. Seuss coloring sheets. I also created a guest book station with multicolored pens and a copy of the Dr. Seuss book "Happy Birthday to You!" that we asked guests to sign for the kids.

For favors, I set out galvanized pails of large rainbow swirl lollipops, which I wrapped in individual treat bags and labeled with DIY tags that said "Today was good! Today was fun! Thank you, thank you, everyone!"

One of the advantages to having triplets is that you only have to plan ONE party -- at least until they get older and start requesting their own separate themes. So I wanted to make the most of it! And I had a ton of fun doing it. :)